I'm mandolining and a jiggering

Hi ya'll,
I just wanted to post a couple of pics of my project. My work is going slowly but surely. I usually just try and do a couple of steps each weekend. I think that this week I actually may try and do a couple steps on the weeknights. I am gettting close to the body assembly and that is exciting. The first picture is of the back. It is solid maple wood and has a single brace that is sanded to a slight curve on the bottom of the brace and scaloped on the top ends so as to give the back a slight roundness without too much stiffness. You still want it to vibrate well when the strings are strummed. The second picture is of the sides. They also are solid maple and are bent and glued to a neck block and a tail block. There is some spruce purfing that is glued to the edges of the sides and will facilitate attachment of the top and the back. As you can see there is currently a piece of cardboard inside the assembly to help ensure that the proper shape is maintained until the top and back are glued. The side assembly is the part that I think I could have done better on so far. I think it will still be great but it wasn't perfectly straight when I glued the sides to the neck and tail blocks so it does not lay completely flat. I think when the top and back are glued on it will true out. The next two pictures are of the top of the mandolin which is made out of spruce and has four top braces which are also also sanded to a curve on the bottom to make the top convex and scalloped on the top of the braces to allow more vibration. Spruce is a very common material for the tops of accoustic instruments because it has such excellent tone qualities. Most quality instruments these days have some kind of a solid spruce top. Adirondack spruce seems to be the move coveted type while Sitka spruce is a bit more easy to come by and is thus more affordable. My mandolin as you can guess has a lovely Sitka spruce top. It is important when buying instruments that you know that the top or soundboard is solid spruce. No laminate allowed. Lots of cheeper instruments will be made out of laminated spruce but they will just say "spruce top". Also, as you can see from the pictures the top and back have just been rough cut with a hand saw as my shop is somewhat limited at the moment. After glueing them to the sides I will plane them to match the curve of the sides. I am having so much fun with this project and will be sure to post more pictures of the progress.

love you all tons.
Jonathan